


Christmas With the Parkers

by jujukittychick



Series: LJ stories_a_z prompts [14]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Awesome May Parker (Spider-Man), Christmas Fluff, Family Feels, Gen, My First Work in This Fandom, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Has A Heart, tony is Trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 11:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27969764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujukittychick/pseuds/jujukittychick
Summary: Tony means well, but the Parkers are simple people, for the most part, and Christmas has never been about the presents but coming together as a family.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: LJ stories_a_z prompts [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/105569
Comments: 10
Kudos: 71
Collections: 1 Million Words' A to Z Challenge, 1 Million Words' Swap of Joy, Happy Holidays





	Christmas With the Parkers

**Author's Note:**

> For 1_million_words a-z challenge- C and their unofficial Swap of Joy
> 
> Warnings: no real warnings, it's mostly just happy holiday family fluff and proof Tony Stark has a heart, but there are some emotional moments where May and Peter's first Christmas after Ben died is discussed, so might want a tissue nearby just in case.

“Hello?”

“May? It’s Tony.”

“Oh, hi, Tony. Peter’s not here right now.”

“That’s fine; I was calling to talk to you anyway. So Christmas is coming up and I wanted to get the kid a present.”

“That’s not necessary, Tony, but I know he’d really appreciate anything you get for him.”

“Right, so since the kid’s driving age now, I thought I’d get him a car, nothing too crazy, maybe an Audi or…”

May blinked and pulled the phone away from her ear to stare at it in disbelief as Tony went on a tangent about even more increasingly ridiculous cars for a teenager that lived in Queens. “Tony...Tony... _ Tony! _ ”

“What? Yeah, you’re right, chrome is so overdone. Oh, what about…”

“ _ TONY! _ ” Sighing as he stopped talking, she kept repeating to herself that he meant well. “Tony, Peter doesn’t need a car; it’s very sweet of you to think of something like that, but it’s just not practical where we live, especially the kind of car you’re thinking about. You know what he’d actually like? A new Lego set that he and Ned can work on together. Or maybe one of those science and engineering kits where you can build a working little car or robot.”

“Oh sure, I’ll grab a few of them and…”

May laughed, he really did mean well, “No, Tony. Just one. Not one of each. Just one big present.”

“But...but that’s nothing to me.”

“Tony, I have to save up all year to buy one of those big sets for Peter plus a couple of other smaller things that he needs.”

“May, I wasn’t trying to insult you or anything…”

“Oh, I know, Tony. I just meant that… Peter’s not used to getting a lot of things for Christmas. Just the fact that you thought of him and wanted to give him a present at all will mean the world to him. How about this, I’ll send you a few links of things he’s mentioned this year. You can pick one big item for him and five little presents that are twenty dollars or less, alright?”

“But that’s so...Are you sure that I can’t…I spent more than $300 on just one present for Pepper, May. I feel like I’m letting him down.”

“Oh, Tony, no.” May curled up in her recliner, her gaze landing on a picture of her, Ben, and Peter just after he’d come to live with them. “I know your family life growing up was...different; I’ve heard the stories. But for us, it’s always been more of a time of being together as family, sitting around the dinner table and sharing stories. The first Christmas after Ben died, I barely had enough money to buy him the new clothes he needed after he’d hit a growth spurt, much less new games or toys, and I felt so miserable about it that I wound up apologizing to him. He hugged me and told me he was just happy to still have me.” She swiped away the tears she felt sliding down her face, taking a couple of deep breaths to try to get herself back under control. “Honestly, Tony, if you just came and had Christmas dinner with us, you’d probably make him the happiest boy in New York.”

She could hear Tony shuffling around with something, knew he had trouble dealing with real emotions, so let him take the time he needed to get his thoughts in order as she got up to fix herself a cup of cocoa. As the silence dragged on, she smiled sadly, “Honestly, Tony, anything you get him will be perfect and will be much appreciated. And if you wanted to make him something, he’d probably like that even more, just nothing dangerous or that will help him get into trouble. But I’ll send those links to you anyway.”

“Thanks, May. I’ll, uh, take a look at them, figure out something he’d really like.”

“I know you will, Tony. You’re a good man.” She couldn’t say she was overly surprised by the rushed goodbye he gave her. Curling up in her recliner with her cup of cocoa, she finally just forwarded Peter’s Amazon wishlist to Tony, laughing to herself as she imagined the look on his face when he had to deal with the shopping site. Then again, he’d probably just have JARVIS sort through the list.

~~

“Hi, Mr. Stark!”

“Hey, kid, what’s this?” Tony looked from the teen rocking excitedly back and forth to the envelope he set on the counter for him. 

“It’s an invitation! Well, sort of. Aunt May said I could invite you to Christmas dinner.”

“Oh, actually on Christmas day?”

“Yeah, Aunt May got a morning shift this year so we’ll actually get to dinner together instead of lunch, which really isn’t the same.”

Staring down at the envelope, Tony remembered what May had told him about what Peter would like for Christmas. As the silence dragged on, he realized that Peter had stopped bouncing and was getting that kicked puppy look in his eyes.

“It’s okay if you can’t come, I mean I know you’re probably really busy, and have some fancy dinner to go to.”

“No, kid, I just, uh, have to check my calendar is all. I know there’s some kind of gala thing going on, but you know I hate those things anyway, and they tend to run forever. I’ll...I’ll see what I can do, alright? No promises, but…”

“No! No, that’d be great, Mr. Stark, honest. And Ned and MJ might be able to come by too since it’ll be later than normal. I’ll have all my favorite people together! I mean, not that I don’t like the other Avengers and Ms. Pepper and…”

Tony laughed and ruffled the kid’s hair. “Cool it, kid, I understand. Now, come look at this new prototype I have worked up for your suit.”

~~

Tony sat in the back of the car in his tux, fingers tapping on the bag of presents, six  _ cheap _ presents, and tugged at his tie.

“You stayin’, Boss?”

Tony looked from the small brownstone, decorated for the holidays with lights everywhere, to Happy’s patient gaze. He thought about how happy Peter had been giving him the invitation to dinner, and that kicked puppy look he got when Tony didn’t answer him. Thought about what May and the kid had said about him just wanting all of his people together with him. Making a decision, he nodded. “Yeah, Happy, I think I am. You know what, you’re already in a tux, why don’t you play escort for Pepper for the rest of the gala and enjoy the free food and drinks and then take the rest of the week off. I’ll catch a cab back to the tower later.”

“If you’re sure? Then alright. But if you need me, just call me.”

Tony smiled at his friend, reaching forward to squeeze his shoulder. “Thanks, Happy. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, Boss.”

Grabbing the bag of presents, Tony made his way up the steps, knocking on the door next to the cheerful wreath hanging there. The door swung open and Peter looked at him, eyes widening in shock before breaking out into the biggest smile he’d seen on the kid yet.

“Mr. Stark, you’re here! I mean, come in, but you’re here!”

Tony chuckled and stepped inside, watching as the boy looked around him to the street below. “I’m here. I happened to receive an invitation to dinner. I, uh, hope I’m not too late.” He looked up to see May standing in the doorway to the kitchen, her hand covering her mouth as she looked suspiciously teary eyed.

Peter’s gaze jerked back to him, his voice breaking in the way it still did when he got overly emotional, “You’re staying? For dinner? Really? What about the party thing?”

Tony shrugged, “Like I said, I hate those kinds of things, all those people sucking up gets old. Oh, these are for you.” 

Peter’s eyes grew wide as saucers as he stared from the bag of gifts back to Tony’s face, “You got me presents? Thank you, Mr. Stark!”

Annnnnnd he had an armful of clinging teenager. Awkwardly hugging the kid, he looked up in time to see May mouth  _ told you so _ . Clearing his throat, he stepped back slightly, “Alright kid, go put your presents under the tree. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for dinner.”

~~

Dinner started a little awkwardly, with Ned fangirling over Tony and MJ glaring at him suspiciously, but soon enough conversation was flowing, the kids telling stories about some of their misadventures at school, May telling them some of the funnier stories from people who had come into the ER, and Tony just sitting back listening to it all as plates of turkey and different vegetables and rolls were passed around on mismatched dishes, Christmas music playing softly in the background while the Christmas tree lights lit up everything adding a kind of magical ambience to the whole experience that he honestly couldn’t remember experiencing in a very long time.

Tony sat on the couch as the kids found seats on the floor, handing out presents to each other. He watched as Peter and Ned both happily exclaimed over the LEGO kit he had gotten him, both of them pointing out all the little details while MJ just rolled her eyes goodnaturedly. But, more surprising to Tony, was how excited Peter got over all the little trinket things he had gotten him too, proudly showing them off to his friends and his Aunt. And when he got to the present Tony had made him, a scaled down replica of the Iron Man gauntlet holding a robot spider in its palm, Peter had frozen, his eyes growing watery and his lip quivering.

Not sure what to do with the kid’s reaction, Tony did one of the things he did best and started talking, “It works, you know, the spider. I mean, it can’t do a whole lot, but it’ll run around and stuff, and…”

Annnnnd he had an armful of teenager again, this time a sniffling one. Hugging the kid awkwardly from the way he was seated, he patted his back.

“It’s awesome, thank you, Mr. Stark. I can’t believe you made it just for me.”

“It was nothing, I had fun doing it. Maybe you can come up to the workshop and help me modify it while you’re out on break. I want to see if I can get it to actually climb up the walls.”

“Yeah, yeah that’d be great, thank you. Oh! I almost forgot!” Peter ran into his bedroom, coming back out with a small book sized present. Blushing, he held it out to Tony. “It’s not much, but…”

Tony opened it up and saw a windowbox frame with the words  _ World’s Coolest Boss _ spelled out in gold bits of electronics on a red background. Tilting his head, pretty sure he recognized one of the pieces, he looked up at the kid, “Is that from the…”

Peter rubbed the back of his head, “Like I said, it’s not much, but I found all these cool bits of broken projects and leftover pieces and thought it would be neat to make something out of it. It’s dumb, I know…”

“No! No, I love it.” And he really did, the longer he looked at it, the more pieces he recognized, all from various projects the two of them had worked on the past year. Standing up, he walked over to the embarrassed teen and took a deep breath before pulling him into a hug, whispering against his hair, “It’s perfect, kid, thank you.”

~~

The rest of the evening was full of cake and pie and cocoa and more stories and more laughter. When midnight rolled around, the kids still bouncing off the walls but May ready to head to bed, Tony called a cab. As May held the door for him, he passed her an envelope. “Merry Christmas, May. You were right. And this was, honestly, the best Christmas I’ve had in...I don't know how long.”

“I’m glad you could come, Tony. It meant the world to Peter, thank you.”

Tony just nodded and headed down the stairs as the taxi pulled up.

Closing the door behind her, May remembered the envelope he’d handed her. Opening it, she pulled out a letter and a receipt - her electric bill had been paid in full for the next year. “What the…Tony!” 

Opening the letter, she read:

_ May, you only said I had a limit on the kid. Maybe next year he can have a nice present for Christmas and his birthday. _

_ Tony _

May rolled her eyes, and headed to bed, whispering, “You’re a good man, Tony Stark.”

~~

The picture Peter made Tony hung right next to his desk so he and everybody else who came in his office would see it first thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Like my work? Curious about what other crazy ideas I've had? Check out my [plot bunny page](https://jujubunnies.freeforums.net/). You can comment on existing ideas or leave your own requests.
> 
> I'm also back on [LiveJournal](https://jujukittychick.livejournal.com/) now, so you can send me PMs or see the random things I'm working on as I use it to post ideas and stuff


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